As the role of computers has expanded, various different techniques have been developed for entering data into computers. Recently, pen-based computing systems (such as tablet PCs, personal digital assistants, and the like) have gained popularity. One particularly useful technique for entering data in such pen-based computing systems is through the use of handwriting. By writing with a stylus, electronic pen, or other user input device on a digitizer, e.g., to produce “electronic ink,” a pen-based computer user can forego the bulk and/or inconvenience associated with use of a conventional keyboard. Handwritten input conveniently may be used, for example, by doctors making rounds, architects on a building site, couriers delivering packages, warehouse workers walking around a warehouse, and/or in any situation when the use of a keyboard would be awkward, inconvenient, and/or undesired. A wide variety of “pen-based computing systems” now are available that allow entry of data via handwriting, e.g., using electronic ink and/or via an electronic pen.
Not all application programs, however, have been designed to accept and/or are capable of accepting user input in the form of electronic ink and/or via an electronic pen. For example, many application programs are incapable of accepting data in a format other than machine-generated text (e.g., input via a conventional keyboard, downloaded, or input in some other manner). When pen-based computing system users open and use such restricted input application programs, attempts to enter electronic ink input into areas or fields that are incapable of accepting such input will result in error messages, ignored input, erroneous input, lost input, and/or other input issues. Such input entry difficulties constitute a source of frustration for users of pen-based computing systems.
FIG. 1A illustrates an example digitizer and/or display screen 10 of a pen-based computing system (e.g., a tablet PC display) on which an application program that is incapable of accepting input in the form of electronic ink is operating (e.g., a word processing application program in this illustrated example). If this tablet PC user has only the computing system's pen or stylus available as an input device, he/she will be incapable of inputting data into this electronic document and/or otherwise interacting with this application program. In an effort to allow pen-based computing system users to interact with a wide variety of application programs, including the many existing application programs not designed to accept electronic ink input, at least some pen-based computing systems have been equipped with “text input systems” that allow electronic ink and/or other electronic pen input to be “converted” to a form that the application program will correctly recognize and accept. In conventional pen-based computing systems, the text input system can be activated by tapping the electronic pen on an icon 12 provided at the lower left side of the display screen 10, as shown in FIG. 1A (e.g., adjacent the “Start” button in a “toolbar” provided with at least some graphical user interfaces and/or operating systems). In such conventional systems, this icon 12 was a band icon that constituted a property of the pen-based computing system's operating system (e.g., the Microsoft® Windows XP Tablet PC Edition Version 2002 operating system), which allowed bands to be added near the “Start” button.
Tapping the icon 12, in at least some existing pen-based computing systems and/or their operating systems, activated an interface panel 14 through which user input may be entered. For example, as shown in FIG. 1B, a user may write one or more characters in the electronic ink input portion 16 of the interface panel 14 using an electronic pen or stylus. A handwriting recognizer associated with the operating system then was called upon to convert the handwritten electronic ink input to conventional machine-generated text (e.g., ASCII text or the like), and this corresponding recognized and machine-generated text then was inserted into the electronic document, e.g., at the location of cursor 18 when the interface panel 14 was activated and/or at the location of the cursor 18 when the electronic ink was entered into interface panel 14. In this manner, application programs that were incapable of accepting and/or interacting with electronic ink and/or electronic pen input could be adapted to reliably receive input from such sources.
Another example or version of an interface panel 14 for a text input system is shown in FIG. 1C. More specifically, in this illustrated example, the text input system constitutes a “soft keyboard” 20, which enabled users to “type” in the desired textual information (e.g., at the location of cursor 18) using the tip of the electronic pen (or other user input device) to “touch” or “tap” the various keypads of the soft keyboard 20. Again, in this manner, application programs that were incapable of accepting and/or interacting with electronic ink and/or electronic pen input could be adapted to reliably receive input from such sources.
While input systems of the type illustrated in FIGS. 1A through 1C have been useful and effective, these known systems also have certain drawbacks or shortcomings. For example, in at least some conventional systems, the location of the input system icon 12 is fixed at the lower left-hand side of the display screen 10 (e.g., in the lowermost toolbar). Many users find this location somewhat unnatural and/or inconvenient to use (e.g., because many users interact with and operate in the top half to two-thirds of the display screen 10 in a pen-based computing system, locating the text input system icon in the lowest 5% of the display screen 10 has not been found to be very natural or convenient). Additionally, in many instances, users tended to forget the purpose of the icon 12 and/or would activate it only after searching for it (the appearance of the icon 12 in some conventional systems (e.g., as a tiny picture of a keyboard with no associated text) was not readily visible or identifiable by users, thereby failing to provide an immediate visual clue as to the purpose of icon 12). These factors make use of input panel 14 seem a substantial and inconvenient interruption in the data entry process. Additionally, in at least some circumstances (e.g., for application programs and/or users that prefer to hide this lowermost toolbar), location of the icon 12 and/or activation of the interface panel 14 can be difficult or even impossible.
Additional drawbacks relate to the location and features of the conventional input panel 14 when activated. In at least some conventional systems, interaction with icon 12 activated the input panel 14 only in a “docked” manner. More specifically, as shown by comparing the displayed data of FIG. 1A with that in FIGS. 1B and 1C, when activated, the input panel 14 takes up a certain portion of the overall display screen 10 height, and the remainder of the displayed data is shrunk to fit within the confines of that smaller display area. The changes required to allow this type of resizing and position shifting can be somewhat disorienting and disruptive, and it can result in inaccurate data displays.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for more convenient and improved user interfaces, systems, and methods that allow use of electronic ink and/or electronic pen data for data entry in various types of systems, application programs and/or data fields, including systems, application programs, and/or data fields that have not been designed to accept electronic ink and/or electronic pen input.